SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom - Rehydrated Review (AttacksOnYaks)
It is hard to recommend this game to most players. Battle for Bikini Bottom is a game I have fond memories of on the PlayStation 2. It was a solidly enjoyable AA experience with all of the comedy of the cartoon that it is based on. While most of that is preserved in the remastered (Rehydrated) edition, there's a whole lack of polish and care from the original version.
This release of this game has known bugs that were not present in the original that will seemingly never be fixed. Three that come to mind...
- The 100% of spatulas achievement does not track properly, and is tracked across all three save files. After collecting all of the spatulas and not getting the achievement, I had to look up a guide to find out the problem. I had to start a new save file in the second slot, and play the first hour of the game until whatever they're doing on the back-end to count the number of spatulas reached 100%. It felt really sloppy and kind of solidified my negative opinion of this game.
- If you're playing as Patrick and you fast travel to Spongebob's house, you will be able to navigate the house as Patrick. You're not supposed to be able to do this. All of the dialog will have Spongebob's voice. The original release of the game accounted for this and would switch you to another character if that level did not allow you to use the selected one.
- Characters will often repeat their random quips over and over and over again. In the original, a character would say the line once every time you entered the level. In this version, they repeat it as long as you're roughly in the area it is supposed to trigger in. Hearing Spongebob say "Ham--mer, HAH, get it?" was funny the first time. The next 7 times he said it was just annoying.
If you can get past the bugs, and lack of attention to detail, you'll find a beautifully rendered re-creation of a game that was a childhood classic for many people. All of the content is present, and it's playable on modern hardware. For me, it was a blast getting to relive this game and I relished in getting to 100% this game. It brought me back to summer vacation from school, staying up until 4:00 AM to get all of the spatulas, just to say that I did.
If that sounds like you, you will enjoy this game and I recommend picking it up for cheap. For everyone else, stay well clear. Track down the original and play that instead.